Sideways (Unicron Trilogy)/Synopsis
The story of the robotic manipulator known as Sideways from the Unicron Trilogy. ''Transformers: Armanda'' Gale Sideways first appeared as a beam of light from the sky striking a large Earth city near the Autobot base. An enigmatic warrior, he appeared to side with the Autobots, helping Hot Shot by watching his back during a confrontation with Scavenger. When asked to reveal himself, he transformed, his rider quickly splitting and becoming a helmet that covered his entire head. He claimed to be Sideways, a drifter who just wandered into the conflict. While he gave the human kids Billy and Fred rides in cycle mode to keep them entertained, Hot Shot and Red Alert as well as Rad and Alexis were suspicious of the motorcycle's motives, especially his close attention to the Mini-Cons. Credulous In the following battle, Megatron faced Sideways and Hot Shot alone, and managed to force the Mini-Con panel Sideways had (apparently) found out of his grasp. As the Decepticon leader began to warp away, both Autobots grabbed onto Megatron and all three were teleported to the Moon. To Hot Shot and Megatron's surprise, the Mini-Con panel was a fake, made to convince Megatron to retreat so that Hot Shot, spurred on by Sideways's encouragement, could defeat the Decepticons once and for all. Though both robots fought well alongside each other, with Sideways expressing concern over Hot Shot's well-being, he eventually betrayed the young Autobot, by striking a deal with Megatron. He would pretend to be Megatron's hostage and in exchange, no matter what, Hot Shot would turn over the Star Saber. At first, Hot Shot did follow through, but reneged at the last moment by calling the Mini-Cons back to him. Sideways suddenly attacked Hot Shot, knocking the Star Saber out of his hands and kicking it to Starscream. He switched Mini-Con heads, revealing his allegiance to the Decepticons. Hot Shot was savagely beaten by the Decepticons, who stopped short of destroying him on the advice of Scavenger, who teleported the young 'bot back to the Autobot base. Once Sideways's loyalty to the Decepticons seemed to be confirmed, he began manipulating them and playing them against each other to suit his mysterious goals. Conspiracy Sideways watched with indifference as the Decepticons became divided over Starscream's possession of the Star Saber. Even though Demolisher turned to him for support, Sideways claimed that he wasn't one for "taking sides". On the next Mini-Con hunt, Sideways crossed paths with Hot Shot, though he avoided fighting him. Instead he took on taunting the young Autobot (who gave chase to him). Hot Shot managed to knock him off his wheels on their second of such races, which allowed the Autobot to regain some confidence in himself. Trust When Starscream voiced his concerns that Scavenger went to joining the Autobots after deserting the Decepticons, Sideways stood in agreement with him. He put on a front of being especially spiteful towards Scavenger. stating that no one should get away with betraying the Deceptions. Starscream was right and thanks to Scavenger's superior tactics, Megatron was gravely injured and tossed down a crevasse on the Decepticons next mission. Sideways hauled him out, but with the Decepticon leader too damaged to continue fighting, the Decepticons were forced to retreat. Vacation Megatron decided to take out his frustration on his troops, and had them participating in a "training excercise", where he chased them around with the Star Saber, Sideways tried to sit the whole thing out, only for Megatron to find his hiding place and dedicate all of his efforts on chasing Sideways specifically. Reinforcements With Sideways help, the Decepticons nearly secured the Mini-Con Incinerator (losing hi to the Autobots at the last moment, due to Blurr's arrival) and then went after the last memberof the Skyboom Shield trio, Downshift. This Mini-Con was somehow able to activate on his own, and fled from anyone who approached him. As one of the speedier Decepticons, Sideways gave chase to Downshit, only to be blasted by Smokescreen and taken out of the race. Rebellion One of these goals was the replacement of Megatron as Decepticon leader after a series of significant losses. Sideways sowed the seeds of rebellion within the Decepticon ranks, subtly turning Starscream against Megatron and convincing Megatron of Starscream's imminent treachery. The situation came to a head when the two Decepticons fought outside their base, but Sideways then realized Megatron would never execute Starscream for his insubordination, exposing an ever-constant weakness within the Decepticon command structure. After the battle, Sideways mused that this weakness would come back to haunt Megatron one day, and would be his ruin. Fortunately though, this incident somehow served to solidify the Decepticons as a unit, giving them much greater morale and cohesiveness, and achieving Sideways's aims of giving neither faction in the conflict a clear advantage. Chase Shortly thereafter, Sideways tried to hack the Autobot base computer, only to encounter the children attempting to destroy the equipment to stop Sideways. He transported them to a digital universe, where they saw the coming of two new combatants. He tried to threaten them into handing over the Street Action Mini-Con Team, before the kids realized that as this wasn't real, he could not harm them. Sideways then apologized to an unseen master, shortly before the children escaped the digital universe, chased by an unknown entity. Detection The Decepticons began to distrust Sideways, suspecting he was not what he seemed, and realized he was manipulating everybody in the unit. Caught out by Thrust and the other Decepticons while communicating with his unseen master, Sideways panicked and attempted to escape, but not before he was confronted by Megatron and sliced in half with the Star Saber. Sideways simply reformed each time, reconnecting his parts and absorbing laser blasts from the other Decepticons. Megatron, in fury and disgust, hacked Sideways to pieces and he was seemingly destroyed... or so they thought. Sideways had entered trans-phase mode and his rider rose in the form of a twisted nanite creature before the Decepticons' eyes, declaring that the Star Saber and Skyboom shield were merely toys to him, as he was near-invincible. His rider said there were millions of Mini-Cons left to be found, and challenged Megatron to see who would find them first, before flying off to parts unknown. Awakening While most of the Autobots were on Earth fighting the monstrous new Decepticon recruit, Tidal Wave, Sideways made an appearance inside the Autobots' base... on a monitor! He told Red Alert and Alexis about the Requiem Blaster, and how the Autobots must find the three Mini-Cons that form it before the Decepticons do. Neither of them trusted Sideways, but they knew Sideways was right. If the Decepticons did find the Requiem Blaster first, it could spell doom for the Autobots and the galaxy. Sacrifice Once the Autobots had acquired the Requiem Blaster, Sideways appeared once again on the Autobots' monitors, laughing. He showed them that he'd disabled their defenses. Sure enough, the Decepticons infiltrated the Autobot base, took the Requiem Blaster, and nearly killed Smokescreen in the process. Mars Later, Sideways appeared to the Decepticon tactician, Thrust, and told him that the Requiem Blaster would be even more powerful if used in conjunction with the other two Mini-Con weapons, the sword and the shield. Crack Thrust talked with Sideways again in a secret, ominous meeting. They planned to get the Mini-Con weapons away from the Autobots. Threaten Thanks to Starscream's confusion on where his loyalties lay, he was able to steal the other two weapons from the Autobots, giving the Decepticons all three weapons. Thrust was hard at work on a secret project for Megatron, one that would harness the energy of all three weapons, and Sideways congratulated the tactician on his growing duplicity. When the three weapons were combined to power the starship Hydra Cannon, Megatron used it to blow up a nearby comet while Sideways laughed from afar, on Earth's moon. Puppet Both the Autobots and Decepticons were en route to Cybertron when a few of each faction were warped to a strange planet where they fought a dark copy of Optimus Prime called Nemesis Prime. When Optimus Prime and Megatron combined their firepower against it, Nemesis Prime was destroyed, and as the copy dissipated, Sideways appeared momentarily. Nemesis Prime had merely been Sideways' puppet. Uprising When both sides had arrived on Cybertron, a black hole opened up over the planet. It started becoming apparent to some that Unicron was arriving. An apparition of Sideways appeared over the Autobots, and the Mini-Cons attacked it. After telling the Mini-Cons to get lost, Sideways again disappeared. Sideways returned to swear vengeance against the Mini-Cons when they tried to stop the black hole's effects. Portent Eventually, Thrust became suspicious that his partnership with Sideways and Unicron might be found out, so he panicked and stole the Requiem Blaster and Skyboom Shield. Thrust ran deep underground where he met up with Sideways, but he was tailed by Starscream. Starscream declined Sideways's obligatory offer to join Unicron, and the two fought. Sideways assaulted Starscream with strange tendrils and amoeba-like organisms, and he and Thrust were able to leave with the two weapons. Now inside the moon in Cybertron's orbit, Sideways placed the Mini-Con weapons into its core, revealing that the moon was Unicron lying dormant all along. Cramp The last of the three Mini-Con weapons was dropped by Starscream when he sacrificed himself to Unicron to prove to Galvatron (a transformed Megatron) that Autobots and Decepticons must join forces to destroy Unicron. Sideways formed over what was left of Starscream and grabbed the sword, making an easy getaway. Alliance With all three weapons in place within Unicron's core, Sideways's master was able to shed the rest of his moon disguise and show his real form. Sideways and his patsy Thrust celebrated their inevitable victory over time and space. Union Thrust was told by Sideways to leave, as his work for now Unicron was now done. Thrust was confused, thinking he would be Unicron's right-hand man, but Sideways got angry, and ordered him to leave immediately. Thrust, dejected, left for the surface, where he briefly dictated himself into opposing Sideways so he can assume his command as Unicron's trustee. However, this was not meant to be when he later got crushed to death within Unicron's creases during the battle. Origin Optimus and Galvatron managed to reach the glowing core deep within Unicron's body. Before their eyes, the core budded, recreating the body of Sideways. Unicron spoke through this Sideways body, announcing that Sideways had always been an extension of Unicron himself, and that Sideways had intentionally stoked the flames of the Autobot/Decepticon war so that Unicron could be fueled by their mutual hatred. He took special delight in mocking Optimus Prime for claiming to fight a war for peace, a seeming contradiction. The truth, according to Unicron/Sideways, was that Optimus Prime loved to battle; Prime refused to admit this. Unicron/Sideways wrapped Prime and Megatron in tendrils, drained Galvatron of his energy, and offered Prime the opportunity to merge with him. Then the children and their Mini-Cons arrived, and they pleaded with him to stop, but Unicron/Sideways was able to claim them as their own; the Mini-Cons were Unicron's creation, after all. But inside a dreamworld created by Unicron, the children were able to call out to the Mini-Cons. They reactivated and told Unicron/Sideways that they believed in peace, and would fight for it if necessary. Their combined might was able to help Prime break free of his tendrils before Prime receives his powerlinx colors. Enraged by the Mini-Con's retaliation, Sideways lashed out in an attempt to kill Hire-Wire, but Optimus quickly shot a blast through Sideways using the Requiem Blaster. As what was left of Sideways faded, he claimed he'd have his revenge before passing away. Immediately after this, Optimus and Galvatron begun their final confrontation. ''Transformers: Cybertron'' Sideways and Soundwave were the last remaining survivors of Planet X after it was destroyed as the result of its war against the planet Gigantion long ago. Even though X was responsible for the war and was destroyed by its own weapon of mass destruction, its survivors were determined to get revenge on Gigantion. Sideways and Soundwave entered into service for Unicron in exchange for Gigantion's destruction. Though Unicron was defeated, Sideways remained alive due to his dark powers. After Unicron's destruction, Sideways and Soundwave went forward with their own plan to destroy Gigantion. When the black hole caused by Unicron's demise warped reality and caused everyone to forget Sideways, the bot entered the war again and offered his services to the Autobots. However, after he helped them corner Starscream, Sideways turned on the Autobots and switched to Decepticons, before exiting, leaving the Autobots and Starscream mystified. Sideways went with the Decepticons to confront the Autobots on the Jungle Planet. In the ensuing battle, Sideways fought against Vector Prime until Optimus defeated Megatron in his Savage Claw Mode. Sideways later found Leobreaker and requested for help to save a friend buried under a rockslide. As Leobreaker went to the location Sideways gave him, Sideways sent a transmission luring the Decepticons to the same place, resulting in a fight breaking out. Leobreaker later spotted Sideways and when he was confronted, Sideways attempted to convince the Autobots that he was a "secret agent" on their side, before transforming and escaping. Sideways traveled with the Decepticons to Velocitron to obtain the Speed Cyber Planet Key. They all retreated after Megatron lost the Cyber Planet Key to Override. later, as Optimus Prime and Scourge prepared to battle each other for the Jungle Cyber Planet Key, Sideways bet with Starscream on the winner. Sideways suggested to Starscream that he delay the Autobots from going to the battle. Starscream took Sideways's suggestion, resulting in Scourge losing faith in Prime's honor. Sideways later accompanied Megatron and his forces on their quest to find and take the Key from the Autobots, who had hidden the key in a box and mixed it with several decoy boces. Sideways went after Vector Prime and fought him for his box, but he retreated after discovering that Vector Prime's box containd nothing but a rock. When Megatron and his Decepticons set off to find another Cyber Planet Key, Sideways noticed that Starscream was instead heading to Earth. Sideways chose to follow Starscream instead of Megatron, joining Starscream on his trip to the Arctic. Sideways eventually realized that Starscream had sent Megatron in the wrong direction and watched Starscream's fight against the Autobot Crosswise. When Crosswise was on the verge of losing, Sideways joined the battle and helped Starscream finish off Crosswise drove away. Sideways later tracked Crosswise to his hidden hideout, but fled after he was discovered. Sideways stood by Starscream's side as he led the army of Ancient Decepticons on a search for the third Cyber Planet Key. When Starscream obtained the Omega Lock and the Cyber Planet Keys from the Autobots, Sideways accompanied him and the other Ancient Decepticons back to their volcanic base. Seeing that the Autobots were converging on their location, Sideways ordered the Ancient Decepticons to attack the Autobots. Sideways was eventually confronted by the Autobots. Sideways at first had the upper hand due to his warping abilities. However, Vector Prime placed his Mini-Con, Safeguard, on Sideways's back, allowing the Autobots to detect where Sideways would appear. Sideways later managed to escape thanks to the arrival of Scourge. After Starscream was defeated, Sideways appeared and teleported Starscream away. Starscream woke up inside the Atlantis, with Sideways standing over him. Sideways explained that during the time Starscream had been out, Megatron had been defeated and Primus had awoken. The two traveled to the dormant Cybertron/Primus. He and Starscream triedand failed to fight their way through the Autobots to the Omega Lock. Later, Sideways warped behind the Autobots' human friends, nabbed their three Mini-Con pals, and warped away. Angry, the children followed him. Sideways attached Jolt to some equipment in order to search his memories for data pertaining to location of Gigantion, where the last Cyber Planet Key would be found. But all Sideways could extract was useless data that would take a long time to examine, so he tried to pass the time by first watching TV, than listening to music. As the memory download was taking so long, so Sideways decided it would be much quicker if they just deleted all the unrelated data. The operation was interrupted by the children, and so Sideways left to deal with them. After distracting Sideways, including a faked hologram of Megatron, the children were able to escape with Sideways's key to the cell he was keeping the other two Mini-Cons in. Though those two were rescued, Sideways finally caught up with them. Jolt was able to open a warpgate for himself and the others to escape through. Angered, Sideways warped away himself, and appeared again in front of them, telling him that he had put an energy field around the ship to prevent Jolt from pulling that trick again. The children and the Mini-Cons ran, but he threw one of his wing blades into the path ahead of them, blocking their escape. As Sideways mocked their attempts to distract him, Coby was able to communicate with the ship and spray fire-retardant foam over Sideways's head. Later, when the children and the Mini-Cons had located the chamber in which Sideways was guarding, the one that was blocking communications from being sent out of Atlantis, they remotely caused a malfunction in one of the engine rooms. Sideways ran out of the chamber and into the engine room, where he found a crude drawing of him on the wall. Next they dumped him down one of the garbage chutes, and was cast out of the ship into space. Sideways returned to the helm of Atlantis with Starscream, as they got closer to Gigantion. But due to the work of Bud, Jolt, and Reverb, Jetfire, Wing Saber, and the Decepticons were able to follow a trail to the ship, and so Sideways activated the ship's defenses while he navigated a warp jump away. But after they had jumped, Starscream felt the power of Primus, and so the Atlantis returned to Cybertron. After a battle between Starscream and Primus, Starscream was defeated, so Sideways warped the ship away again with Starscream's body in tow. Starscream was no worse for wear by the time Sideways had begun piloting Atlantis through a warp gate to another dimension where Gigantion was located, but the Autobots' ship, the Ogygia, wasn't far behind. Atlantis started lagging behind the Autobots when Bud and the Mini-Cons aboard began sabotaging its engines, much to the fury of Sideways and Starscream. Sideways managed to get Atlantis to Gigantion, but only after a crash-landing. Before too long, the ship was under attack from the Autobots. Starscream was still too drained from his fight with Primus, so Sideways was told to fight them himself, an order he grumbled loudly about once he was out of Starscream's range. He confronted Optimus Prime, merged with Wing Saber, and bemoaned their sneaky tactics. He was the one supposed to be pulling the strings! As Sideways was targeted by a volley of missiles, Optimus Prime told Sideways that he'd had enough of his tricks. After a prolonged fight, Sideways could do nothing better than to utter a pathetic "mother!" as Prime's final, most powerful attack was bearing in on him. Thankfully for Sideways, he was saved by Soundwave, who pushed him out of the way at the last second. Once they were safe, Sideways thanked Soundwave for the rescue. Soundwave reminded Sideways not to forget their ultimate purpose. While both of them were searching for the last Cyber Planet Key, they were discovered by the Cybertron Defense Team. Soundwave explained their backstory as survivors of Planet X and their vendetta against Gigantion. When the Autobots noted it was their own fault their planet was destroyed, Soundwave shrouded them in a thick black cloud while Sideways created virtual duplicates of himself. He managed to mess with Red Alert's head, but was tricked into revealing himself by Scattorshot after the clever technician dealt with the smog. In the end, the two Planet X natives were crushed under a falling tower. Sideways and Soundwave didn't resurface until the Autobots were ready to leave Gigantion to their home dimension to repair the black hole. They challenged the Autobots, blocking their path out of the planet, for they wanted to ensure the black hole destroyed the galaxy. After fighting Optimus Prime to a standstill, they were interrupted by Starscream and Megatron, who were fighting several layers above them, glowing and pulsating with energy levels no one present had ever seen. Soundwave and Sideways wanted to escape, fearing their own destruction, but they lamented that if they didn't grab the Omega Lock then, they'd have failed at their mission. Both warped closer to the battle between Megatron and Starscream, and, reaching towards the tremendous energy that had built up during the Decepticons' battle, Sideways begged Soundwave to leave and save himself. Soundwave rejected this, because they were in this together. the battle of Megatron and Starscream released a wave of energy, and Starscream, Soundwave and Sideways had vanished, and Vector Prime believed that they had been blasted into yet another dimension. Later, when Megatron witnessed a vision of Starscream—apparently reaching out through the fire dimension to mock him one final time—Sideways and Soundwave were both standing by the traitor's side. The last time Sideways was seen, the pair were shown to have found another Planet X, and seemed to be pretty happy there. Category:Synopsis